Tell el-Amarna

Tell el-Amarna was the short-lived capital of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who infamously instituted a kingdom under one god (the sun deity Aten) that was so controversial it saw later kings attempt to write him out of history altogether. He had the city purpose built in the desert on the East bank of the Nile, 312 km south Cairo and 402 km north of Luxor.

Tell el-Amarna was impressive and all powerful in its day, but after Akhenaten's death the capital was moved back to Memphis, and the city was completely abandoned and left to crumble into the desert. Many of its remains survive today however, and it represents an archaeological treasure trove, as the largest readily-accessible living-site in Egypt.

The city was roughly divided into various zones. The Northern City housed the royal palace - the residence of Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti (whose famous bust was found in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose in the southern suburbs of the city) and their children. The Central City contained important administrative and ceremonial building, including the Great Temple of the Aten and the Small Aten Temple. The southern suburbs was where Tell el-Amarna's powerful nobles lived.

The distinctive Amarna art style has been identified in many of the important remains found at the city. Perhaps the most important and revealing discovery made at Tell el-Amarna was the Amarna Letters - a cache of over 300 cuneiform tablets containing some of Akhenaten's personal correspondence. They were found by accident, by a woman digging for sebakh in the desert in 1887.